The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast July 2, 1989

     It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention and so it was with the development of the first two-way police car radio system.  In the late 1920s and early 1930s, police cars in many cities were using a one-way radio system that had many problems.  These police cars were equipped with a short-wave receiver that could only receive calls from police headquarters and headquarters didn't know if the police car actually received the calls.
     There were only a few police frequencies available and these were shared with police in other cities hundreds of miles away resulting in much confusion and interference.
     Since many cities have the same street names, calls to a local police car would often be heard in a distant city resulting in those police cars falsely speeding to the scene of a crime only to find out that there wasn't any crime.  The police radios were a little above the regular AM broadcast band and could be heard up to 1000 miles away.  Many of the regular home radio receivers were capable of receiving these calls.  It was a form of entertainment to listen in, especially at night when distant cities could be heard.  Even though there were many difficulties with the one-way police radio system, it continued to grow and the problems became much more severe.
     Radio Amateur Frank Gunther, W2ALS, of Staten Island, New York, felt that he could solve these problems.  In the fall of 1932, he developed a radically new concept in police radio communications.  Frank's system enabled patrolmen in police cars to use two-way radio communications with headquarters and with other police cars within the city instead of just receiving calls.  He also moved the operating frequency up more than ten times higher into the VHF spectrum where signals only went thirty miles or so.  This eliminated the interference from police in other cities.
     Frank demonstrated its capability in several cities.  This was during the depression years and local governments were reluctant to spend money for a totally new type of police radio system.  The cities were also advised by the big prestigious companies that had already sold thousands of the one-way radios that it would not be satisfactory.  However, the city fathers of Bayonne, New Jersey, were convinced that it was what they needed and during the month of March in 1933 the Bayonne Police Department went on the air and became the very first city to use two-way police radio communications.
     Word of its great success spread quickly throughout New Jersey with the cities and towns of Elizabeth, Jersey City, Deal, Pleasantville, and Atlantic City being among the first to use this new two-way police radio.  In the next few years, its use spread across the United States and to other countries overseas.
     I remember hearing this Bayonne police two-way radio in the early 1930s when living 15 miles away in Staten Island, New York.  It was a thrilling experience learning for the first time that the police were speaking from a moving police car.  Little did I realize then that 54 years later I would be invited to witness the dedication ceremony when a large bronze plaque mounted on a stone monument would be presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to the City of Bayonne, New Jersey, designating radio amateur Frank Gunther's design of this two-way police radio system an electrical engineering milestone.

July 2, 1989

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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